Falcons coach Mike Smith believes his players have “resilience,” and we know this because he says it after every game and in several waking moments in between. This is how Webster’s defines resilience: “The ability to become strong, healthy, or successful again after something bad happens; the ability of something to return to its original shape after it has been pulled, stretched, pressed, bent, etc.”

The Falcons are 2-8. They have lost four consecutive games by scores of 27-13, 34-10, 33-10 and 41-28. This would be a good time for Smith to find a new buzzword because it’s clear the Falcons’ ability to become strong after a setback, or to return to their original shape after being pulled, stretched, pressed or bent is pure fantasy.

The sad reality that Smith won’t acknowledge publicly is that the players he has been so quick to defend have quit on him. They might show a pulse at kickoff. They might get into the occasional pushing match or throw a block or run out a route. But there’s a clear difference between watching players on auto pilot and seeing them go at their job with passion and effort — especially after being punched in the face.

The 2-8 teams get punched and collapse. They’re not resilient. The 2-8 teams have players with their minds on direct deposit. They say the right things and maybe for five minutes a game even do the right things. But pride doesn’t make it through four quarters. Teams don’t become 2-8 only because of injuries. They become 2-8 when the healthy players don’t care enough.

Which brings me back to Mike Smith.

He is a terrific person. He is a terrific coach. A guy doesn’t step into a historically losing organization such as the Falcons, win for five consecutive seasons and make the playoffs in four of them and not know how to coach.But this is not about what happened yesterday, it’s about today. Today, players are not following their head coach.

This is not a “Fire Mike Smith” column. But Falcons owner Arthur Blank and general manager Thomas Dimitroff — who obviously is not immune to criticism also — have to wonder if this season is a warning sign. Because if this is not some aberration and Smith really has lost his ability to command players’ attention, then it won’t matter what personnel changes are made after this season.

Coaching has become a disposable profession for this reason. Players suddenly tune out their leader, fair or unfair. Smith didn’t suddenly become dumb. But if he is saying and doing the same things during a 2-8 season that was while going 56-24 in the first five, that’s a significant problem.

The Falcons have lacked focus, an edge and confidence. There were warning signs last season when they unraveled down the stretch of both home playoff games against Seattle and San Francisco. This season, they haven’t looked like a well-coached, cohesive group since they broke training camp.

They have looked sloppy and unprepared. Every week is another mutating blob of turnovers, penalties, missed assignments and mis-tackles. That’s either poor coaching, poor listening or both.

The Falcons were outworked and outplayed Sunday by a Tampa Bay team that was 1-8 and recently bordered on a mutiny against coach Greg Schiano. They have one more win than Jacksonville and half as many as Buffalo.

There’s your preseason Super Bowl contender: Half of Buffalo.

This season has been over from a playoff-chase perspective for a while. But it would be telling how this team would finish the season because it would indicate something about character and coaching, moving forward. The past four weeks: not comforting foreshadowing for 2014.

Even great coaches often have limited lifelines. John Fox is 9-1 in Denver. But he was fired in Carolina after three 11-win seasons, two division titles, two conference championships berths and a Super Bowl appearance. Andy Reid is 9-1 in Kansas City. But he was fired by Philadelphia, where he was honored three times as coach of the year, won six division titles and coached in five NFC Championship games and a Super Bowl.

Tom Coughlin? Canned by Jacksonville, where he coached his team to four playoffs in his five years, like Smith. Mike Shanahan? Let go in Denver, where he won two Super Bowls.

Dan Reeves led the Falcons to their only Super Bowl appearance and coached the Falcons to a major playoff upset in Green Bay in 2002. But the following season the team collapsed and Reeves was fired. The impetus for the fall? Michael Vick broke his leg. Blank also fired Jim Mora in 2006. Mora went 11-5 and reached the NFC Championship game in his first season, but followed that with records of 8-8 and 7-9. End of honeymoon.

There have been injuries. There have been personnel mistakes, especially on the offensive and defensive lines. There has been a step back by quarterback Matt Ryan. But the biggest concern about the Falcons’ this season is the manner in which they’ve completely collapsed from within. Resilience is a mindset. Right now, it’s also a fantasy.

I have been saying this for weeks now. The results on the field. Tape don't lie as my basketball coach of a dad would say. The team has completely given up on the season. That is what should get a head coach fired. Mike Smith didn't suddenly forget how to coach but if the players won't play up for him then that is all that is needed to fire him.

In response to the same article on the OMB, snowball posted an excellent response:"I don't agree. To be perfectly honest, I think its acceptable to have one terrible year out of six. If this continues next year, my opinion will change quickly. If there is any residue from this season left over when week one rolls around, I will have lost my faith in the powers that be.

One thing I really like about Smitty and Dimitroff is their willingness to change. When they saw the limitations they faced with Mularkey's 1970's, 3 yards and a cloud of dust offense, they changed. When they saw how dynamic skill players were becoming, due to the rule changes, they took a huge gamble and it brought this team incredibly close to the Super Bowl. There aren't many coaches that are willing to adapt to the times. I have no doubt in my mind that they are going to break everything down and reevaluate their approach.

Then again, they resigned Baker. I'm so conflicted."

He almost had me believing until the last line, which stung like soap in your pee hole.

Why wouldn't they care about draft position? We were at the back of every round. Now we will be at the front. That gives us about 30 spots higher per pick. That is a HUGE difference.

Trufant and Alford seem to be doing pretty well, but we need help higher up in the draft. We need solid players that will help the lines. Top 5 picks make immediate impacts. We can get 4 of the top 100 players. You can't do that when you are in the playoffs.

Honestly, we've succeeded to fast. Our picks have been late in drafts because of winning seasons. Absolutely NOBODY saw us turning into a contender every single year after the 2007 collapse. We needed early draft picks to help us and we didn't get them. Because of that success we had to pull too many pieces from free agency because we kept getting to close to the Superbowl. We built for winning now because we had a window.

That window is now closed and we can see what type of draft we can actually have to rebuild this team. We really aren't many pieces out. We just need line help. We can get 4 players that should make an immediate impact. Add in a free agent or two and we are in business.

If we play our cards right, this could be the best draft in Falcons history. It could very well be the start of OL and DL dominance that we've needed. Just upgrading those lines will make our piss poor looking team into a top offense again and a minimum a top 15 defense.

The players know what's going on. They aren't stupid. They all get paid and play as directed. These coaches and players know the season is lost, it's best not to F up the next one by getting a mid-round pick.

Why wouldn't they care about draft position? We were at the back of every round. Now we will be at the front. That gives us about 30 spots higher per pick. That is a HUGE difference.

Trufant and Alford seem to be doing pretty well, but we need help higher up in the draft. We need solid players that will help the lines. Top 5 picks make immediate impacts. We can get 4 of the top 100 players. You can't do that when you are in the playoffs.

Honestly, we've succeeded to fast. Our picks have been late in drafts because of winning seasons. Absolutely NOBODY saw us turning into a contender every single year after the 2007 collapse. We needed early draft picks to help us and we didn't get them. Because of that success we had to pull too many pieces from free agency because we kept getting to close to the Superbowl. We built for winning now because we had a window.

That window is now closed and we can see what type of draft we can actually have to rebuild this team. We really aren't many pieces out. We just need line help. We can get 4 players that should make an immediate impact. Add in a free agent or two and we are in business.

If we play our cards right, this could be the best draft in Falcons history. It could very well be the start of OL and DL dominance that we've needed. Just upgrading those lines will make our piss poor looking team into a top offense again and a minimum a top 15 defense.

The players know what's going on. They aren't stupid. They all get paid and play as directed. These coaches and players know the season is lost, it's best not to F up the next one by getting a mid-round pick.

Exactly. Players don't care about draft position. They know (or should know) that they are competing for their job in every game. Our players show none of that. They have completely quit. Other teams are not going to want players who give up on losing seasons and clearly put forth no real effort on the field.

I think all the talk about the Flacons nailing the draft and turning things around in one year is wishful thinking. TD has went 0-17 on the lines, he isn't all of a sudden going to pick 3-4 starting linemen in the same draft, aint gonna happen. Looking back at TD's drafts, we have selected a shit ton of mediocre talent, even when we were in the position to select better talent. MS and TD are the reasons why the team is in this mess, they built this giant brick of shit, expecting them to undo what they spent the last 5 years fucking up is crazy.

Need a young RB, a RT, a RG, LT but Baker is under contract so thats not going to happen, a C if Konz can't get his shit fixed. Need a DE most definitely, another DT as well. Spoon is really our only starting LB, and he is average. Worrilow and Bartu have been ok but don't know if that's the core group that we should rely on all season. CB is solid, definitely need a FS.

Granted, some of these positions should be able to be filled by guys already on the roster but since out depth absolutely sucks and we can't develop players for shit...

Keep in mind this is pretty much the same list of positions that I thought we needed help at last year before the draft, although CB was on that list and I prolly didn't think C was an issue because I liked Konz.

With six games left I'd like to see waht Schraeder and Gunn can do at RT and RG so we have a little bit better idea of what we need going into the OS. Hoping that since they are UDFA and not TD's oline draft picks that they might actually be worth a shit. Motta might be serviceable at FS as well if he keeps getting playing time, but I think he is more of a SS.

The point is that we aren't really a move or two, or five away from being competitive again, we can't just get a new starter or two or four and hope they can get us back on track, we don't need to blow shit up and start over but we definitely need to consider cleaning house.

Truth be told, I'd rather us take a year or two and rebuild the team the right way so that we have a solid foundation rather than trying to use short terms moves to get us back on the right side of .500. the whole "we only need a player or two" philosophy is what got us to this dumpster fire of a season, If TD and Smith are still here come the end of the season I'd like to see them try to do shit the right way rather than relying of short term solutions to fix long term problems.

And truthfully, because you can still get a top tier OG at the front of the second round, I really think we might just go OLB or DT with our first pick.

Anthony Barr is a freak of nature OLB. He's another Von Miller type athlete and the closest thing to a can't miss sure thing in this draft.

Louis Nix is a massive beastly NT as well. IF, and I mean IF, for some reason they finally decide to change base defense to a 3-4, there's a possibility we go for Nix. But I really doubt this. I think it's unlikely, that's for sure.

So IMO, if we don't trade back for more picks and we happen to hold on to our top 5 pick, I actually think Barr is who we go with over Jake Matthews. And I won't be the least bit disappointed. Barr is special. Matthews is like every other OL that ever gets drafted. No certainty.

I don't agree with this at all. We don't need a young RB. We can manage with who we have. Get an UDFA and throw them back there if needed. Really, RB is least of our worries.

RT, RG, DT, DE

Those are the 4 spots we really need. That's not hard. We don't need to throw everything away because of 4 people, thats stupid. You don't need a top 10 defense to win championships. If we had a decent Oline that can protect Ryan and open up a hole to run through every now and then, we are back in the playoffs.

If we can get a DT that can clog the middle, and a DE that can actually create pressure, then we are good to go. This is possible.